In October 1994 I started as an independent piano teacher. Guus Arons, the father of Jeroen Arons (Arons Music -> Keymusic Heerlen) helped me to realize my dream. I initially started teaching in his business at the Roland Education Center. Later I moved my teaching practice to my home.
We are now 25 years later, where I have gained a lot of experience teaching more than a thousand students in the region. The biggest change I have experienced myself is that I no longer focus on music, but on the needs of the student. This is done without loss of quality in education. The students feel heard and enjoy the lesson more. It has such a motivating effect that many students have been coming to lessons with enthusiasm every week for more than 10 years.
In addition, my teaching practice has acquired an International Character. In the late 1990s, an American officer who worked for NATO asked me to teach his daughters. This was my first experience teaching English. The network of this family resulted in more American students being taught. Over the years, students from all over the world joined. Besides America, they came from Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic, Japan, China, South Korea, Poland, Hawaii, Canada, Spain, England, Belgium, Turkey.
Student Concerts at my home have become a regular part of my agenda. The pupils are allowed to choose for themselves what they tell others and who they invite to come and listen. They are received in a homely atmosphere where I manage to dampen the performance pressure and fear of failure. After all, we make music to enjoy it ourselves and to share it with others. Competition is out of place in this sphere. In my opinion, the piano competitions were created for this.
Local Piano Exams that I organized together with my colleagues gave way to the National Piano Exams of the EPTA 10 years ago. This ensures that the quality of my piano education is monitored by a national organization.
My experience with working with people and my psychology studies have made it logical that, in addition to giving piano lessons, I have been coaching people for more than 5 years with solving problems and questions they encounter in their lives.
My experience as a piano teacher and psychologist has helped me successfully guide students with autism, AHDH, gifted, partially sighted and even a student with one hand.